Thursday, December 31, 2015

Gibeon's Complaint

From the November 2012 E-Block.

**

2 Samuel 21:1-9 Then there was a famine in
the days of David three years, year after year; and David enquired of
the Lord. And the Lord answered, It is for Saul, and for his bloody
house, because he slew the Gibeonites. And the king called the
Gibeonites, and said unto them; (now the Gibeonites were not of the
children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites; and the children
of Israel had sworn unto them: and Saul sought to slay them in his zeal
to the children of Israel and Judah.) Wherefore David said unto the
Gibeonites, What shall I do for you? and wherewith shall I make the
atonement, that ye may bless the inheritance of the Lord?

And the Gibeonites said unto him, We will have no silver
nor gold of Saul, nor of his house; neither for us shalt thou kill any
man in Israel. And he said, What ye shall say, that will I do for you.
And they answered the king, The man that consumed us, and that devised
against us that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the
coasts of Israel, Let seven men of his sons be delivered unto us, and we
will hang them up unto the Lord in Gibeah of Saul, whom the Lord did
choose. And the king said, I will give them.

But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan the
son of Saul, because of the Lord's oath that was between them, between
David and Jonathan the son of Saul. But the king took the two sons of
Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bare unto Saul, Armoni and
Mephibosheth; and the five sons of Michal the daughter of Saul, whom she
brought up for Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite: And he
delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them in
the hill before the Lord: and they fell all seven together, and were
put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days, in the beginning
of barley harvest.

Not long ago I received a rather self-righteous email from a
character who objected that I had "ignored" this allegedly clear example
of human sacrifice in the Bible. In this brief exposition, we'll
explain why this is not an example of ritual human sacrifice, but
rather, a standard judicial execution, with nuances associated with
Ancient Near Eastern (ANE) legal codes.

To begin, it should be noted that the Gibeonites were in a corner
in terms of seeking justice on their own for the actions of Saul's
house against them. They were unable to protect themselves and could not
engage in a "blood feud" to avenge their losses.

For this reason, they rather pled with David for justice, and it
was provided for them in the form of members of Saul's household – with a
little impetus from God for David to provide that justice. The exact
nature of the punishment is a little difficult to discern; commentators
have suggested everything from a ritual dismemberment to the members of
Saul's house being thrown off a cliff. It is agreed, however, that after
what was done was done, the corpses were exposed to the elements.

It is this last bit that informs us that a judicial execution is
what took place. In the ANE, exposure of a corpse was part of the usual
punishment for covenant treaty violations -- which is exactly what Saul's house did when they broke the divinely sanctioned treaty with the Gibeonites (Joshua 9).

In light of this, let us now consider the objections offered in aforementioned email.

It is clear that the members of Saul's house were provided to placate God.

In light of the judicial data above, that is not at all "clear".
Rather, the narrative is clear that these were judicial executions
performed to settle accounts for Saul's violation of the treaty with the
Gibeonites.

The sacrifice was made during the barley harvest. That's when many ancient people offer human sacrifices.

Harvests were also typical time markers in an era before
published calendars were available. It was also a time when a community
commonly gathered together, and all could be present to witness a
judicial execution.

The passage says that God was entreated for the land after the sacrifice was complete. That sounds like a human sacrifice.

The error here is the assumption that God is only entreated at
times of human sacrifice. In reality, violation of a covenant in which
YHWH was the chief witness and suzerain would naturally result in
punishments in line with the Deuteronomic covenant curses. In this, YHWH
is no different than any other ancient suzerain/patron, who would also
withhold favor from those who violated covenant terms, and would
properly demand that the situation be resolved -- and just as naturally,
once the price of justice has been paid, that is exactly when those
being punished would entreat the suzerain for relief.

In conclusion: I gathered these arguments from a survey of
commentator views on this passage. As it happens, there was one
commentator who argued that this judicial execution was some form of
sacrifice to a "sun god." That, however, is a vastly minority position,
and is just not supported by the textual or contextual evidence.